B+W XS-Pro MRC Nano 72mm and 58mm UV (010M) Filters
People often say that camera lenses are expensive and one should get UV filter to protect the front lens elements. These UV filters, as the name implies, filters out the ultraviolet spectrum of the light although newer digital cameras, nowadays, do not really need these as they have inbuilt UV filter in the camera body. So these UV filters (in front of the camera lenses) are there to prevent that little nephew of yours from poking his chocolate smudged fingers directly onto the lens.
UV filters typically cost between an affordable $10 to ridiculous prices in the range of hundreds but what are the differences between the few hundreds and the $10 piece? To list a few, they are:
- Light transmission quality – Depending on the manufacturing process and material, they have different light transmission quality, some cuts off quite a fair bit of light as it passes through the filter, some cuts off lesser. In general, the higher light transmission quality, the better.
- Surface coating - No coating, single-coat or multi-coat. These coating, in general, reduces the effect of light flare. Coating may also make the filter easier to clean. In general, multi-coated filters manage flares better
- Filter thickness – The thicker the filter, the higher the chances that you get vignetting effect on your shots which might be undesirable for most. In general, the filter should be as slim as possible with front thread for you to attach other filters on it (e.g. ND filter)
Therefore, the UV filter that you are choosing will affect your image/picture quality. I’ve bought cheap UV filters and slightly more expensive filters (from B+W). Honestly, I felt that the B+W XS-Pro MRC Nano UV Filters (010) are worth every penny. To understand why, read on until you get to the pictures test.
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This is the package that comes with the Yongnuo YN-468 II eTTL II Flash
I’ve been looking around for a speedlite flash gun ever since I saw one in action in a dim cafe. The outcome is unbeliveable, the subject is properly exposed at higher shutter speed. So one can be drunk and still take sharp images. Ok, probably not entirely drunk, I think tipsy would be better word.
The Canon Speedlites like the Canon Speedlite 580EX II and Canon Speedlite 430EX II are pretty expensive and you might not need all those expert features. If you are like me, just need a simple flash gun that automatically set the flash power base on my lens-to-subject distance (TTL) then you are reading the right post. The reason for the e-TTL/e-TTL II is because I am bad at manual flash power settings (at the moment) so I would prefer technology to handle all those while I concentrate on composing my shots.
So at the end of the day, the flash gun I am looking for should:
- be compatible with my Canon EOS 60D
- be able to correctly expose my subject depending on my lens-to-subject distance
- cost less than $300
- Support slave triggering
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Simple packaging for the C-Loop
For those who are used to side-slinging the DSLR, perhaps you would like to check out the C-Loop Strap Mount Solution from Custom SLR. With the C-Loop, the strap mounting position is relocated to the bottom of the camera, allowing you to reach out for your camera, swing it back up to your eye eye, the correct side up!
The swivel strap mounting point eliminated issues like:
- entangling straps
- strap running across the view finder
- strap getting into the way while transitioning from landscape to portrait shots, vice versa
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The ASUS RT-N66U is going for some basic speed test!
The ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight is a Dual-band Wireless-N900 Gigabit router. It supports dual-band 5GHz and 2.4GHz with speeds up to 450Mbps concurrently. Meaning to say, you can reach up to 450Mbps on each individual radio (5GHz, 2.4GHz), that explains the Wireless-N900 portion (450Mbps + 450Mbps). Get it?
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RT-N66U - Sleek looking dual-band gigabit router!
Yes! I got the ASUS RT-N66U Dual-band Wireless-N900 Gigabit router! The previous release (ASUS RT-N56U) was a hit locally so I thought I might give this RT-N66U a try. And besides, the design looks really sleek and will definitely blend well with my furnitures. People who do not know what the RT-N66U is will just treat it as an ornament (I hope).
Technical Specifications
- Chipset: Broadcom BCM5300 chip rev 1 pkg 0
- CPU Freq: 600MHz
- NVRAM Size: 32KB
- Flash Size: 32MB
- RAM: 256MB
- Wireless LAN Standard: a/b/g/n. Support dual-band 5GHz and 2.4GHz with speed up to 450Mbps concurrently
- Ports: 4 x Gigabit LAN (with MDI-X), 1 x Gigabit WAN (with MDI-X)
- Power adaptor: 19V with max 1.58A current
- 3rd Party Firmware support: Yes. TomatoUSB works well. Check out the TomatoUSB Flashing Guide for ASUS RT-N66U.
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I recently got a pair of Aztech Powerline Networking adaptors to hook up additional network devices. Powerline networking is great if you do not want to run messy LAN cables around your place but yet want to plug in that spanking new toy (e.g. Apple TV2) to the network.
The Aztech Powerline Adaptors (HL115EP) are advertised to have connection/data rate up to 500Mbps (megabits). So how do they really perform in reality? The Aztech 500Mbps Powerline Networking adaptor (HL115EP) managed to have a sustained network throughput of 94.12Mbps and 89.24Mbps for writing and reading respectively.
Just to set the expectation right, Wireless-N technology have connection/data rate up to 300Mbps but in practical scenario, it manages throughput of ~82Mbps (taking reference from SmallNetBuilder’s ASUS RT-N56U review). So comparing the Aztech HL115EP and Wireless-N, the powerline networking adaptor is not that bad after all.
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